I wanted to restrict this to the cyberpunk genre... but as that's so bifurcated now it's hard to say 'yes/no, that's/not cyberpunk'... I'm just opening this up starting with that genre. Thoughts, experiences, stories, fic, anything that ties in with (generally) the *-punk theme -- technology, dys-/utopia, space exploration, cybercrime, historical fiction, etc. My history with cyberpunk: Got into it as a kid... read a lot as didn't have a bunch of friends growing up. Two things happened in that time that changed my worldview simultaneously -- cyberpunk novels, and cyberpunk manga/anime... William Gibson (Neuromancer), Bruce Sterling (The Difference Engine), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)on the novel side, Shirow Masamune (Appleseed, Ghost In The Shell), Otomo Katsuhiro (Akira), Frank Miller (Ronin), Adam Warren (Dirty Pair), Kishiro Yukito (Battle Angel Alita), Headgear (Patlabor) in manga... Shirow/Oshii Mamoru (GITS), Oshii (Patlabor), Otomo (Akira), Kishiro (Battle Angel) in anime... Later titles like Cowboy Bebop, Dennou Coil, Summer Wars, and Planetes, are also continuing my love for esp hard sci-fi... Go!
^ I never got into classic sci-fi in my younger days... but am getting into it more indirectly, through movies and interpretations of classic works in other, often non-sci-fi works. Was a voracious reader in childhood, but not of fiction unfortunately... Now though... it seems we're at the cusp of some of the landscapes described by the greats, IRL... Exploration of the outer planets... playing with the mechanisms of natural replication... the conflicts and moralities involved in space travel (Interstellar, Chris Nolan's movie, makes a beautiful homage, if not exactly the most skillfully-told version, of those quandaries in colonizing M-type exoplanets). My idea of sci-fi has always been informed through manga and anime, though... just because I feel my visual ASD craved the visual component to digest. Cyberpunk in particular has resonated with me more than classic sci-fi, though... so weirdly I enjoy reading that but not classics... gotta fix that.
I've read a few of the classics (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Herbert). I read the Foundation trilogy and I love the Dune series (I think the new prequels are inferior and diminish the magic somewhat). The more recent works I have read are Gibson (the cyberpunk father), the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons (first two books are great, the Endymion ones are meh ), and a couple by Vernor Vinge. The only sci-fi book published in this millennium that I have read is the Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Looks like I don't read contemporary sci-fi... LOL I haven't gotten into new authors... I love stories that no matter how far removed the technology is, they are still very relatable to our conditions. Philosophical ones are good too as long as they're not too heavy handed. I like space opera and some drama like many people, but I also love works that when it's done, it makes you go "well shit, I've never thought of it that way" I have just finished Ex Machina tonight, an interesting take on a cautionary tale for singularity. It's pretty cool that sci-fi movies that are not just popcorn flicks are getting some mainstream acceptance nowadays. I also recommend the Black Mirror series for some thought-provoking, cautionary tales I won't call Cowboy Bebop hard sci-fi, hehe. I love it, but it definitely prefers style over realism Planetes is awesome, one of my favorite anime series.
Oh no, CB isn't hard -- should've phrased that as '... continuing my love for sci-fi... but esp hard sci-fi'. Interstellar is one of my faves in that genre (even more than Gravity, which was amazing but mostly a cinema experience)... because while it still depended heavily on them... there were also lots of conditions that could've been solved via deus ex machina, which weren't (relativistic time dilation [1 hr in gravity well = 7 yrs on earth]... Plan A/Plan B... fuel as a resource depleting as IRL rather than magically replenishing, etc.). Not having deus ex machina solving every crisis (as in ST:TNG) but being based in real sacrifice, real triage, real decisiveness... plus being based in actual science (even if bent to serve storytelling), is hard sci-fi to me.
Yeah, a good sci-fi story doesn't depend on the characters' ineptness to create interesting situations. Interstellar was really enjoyable and believable for the most part. Who knows docking can be so exciting Spoiler: Interstellar spoiler Although, if a spaceship has an explosion in orbit like that, I would expect the vehicle to tumble around instead of just spinning in one axis like it did, hehe
Spoiler If you look closely at that sequence... when Mann's Ranger experiences the hatch failure, things happen pretty plausibly: the atmosphere in the Ranger's sealed airlock rushes out, pushing Mann out the hatch into orbit (and death from enviro suit failure after contacting the dock at tens of meters per second) the thrust from the air rushing out momentarily pushes the Ranger away from Endurance, but cockeyed Ranger's airlock experiences rapid decompressive failure, causing an explosion there Explosion further pushes Ranger sideways, contacting Pod 1 beside it, which looks like a engineering pod for one of the main engines (there's a nozzle attached underneath it that isn't an RCS [Reaction Control System] nozzle) When Ranger crashes into Pod 1, it either causes Pod 1 to fail, or the pod's contact causes the Ranger to fail explosively (can't tell, both occurred together) Failure of Pod 1 causes Pod 2 on the other side of the Ranger to also explode (possibly linked across Endurances chassis to feed main engine with fuel) Final and brightest explosion (while Coop and Brand are watching from the Lander) is possibly final Pod 2 fuel supply failure (if you look at the Gargantua slingshot sequence later when Coop detaches... Endurance has lost one of its four engines -- which is why it needed Lander 1 and Ranger 2 to assist it) Explosion of Pod 1 pushes against mass of Ranger until it too explods, causing rotational vector that spins Endurance. Explosions of Pod 2 into empty space, push directly into center of mass of Endurance, causing thrust that changes its orbital dynamics and drops it into atmo. With the exception of possibly the severity of the decompressive and explosive failures (and the lack of damage to the Lander from high-speed debris hitting it)... that sequence seemed okay, if not exactly authentic.
Spoiler Haha, it's possible, but waaaay improbable for the whole sequence to result in a spin in one axis. Just a little force off-axis and humanity would have been royally screwed! Trying to orient a spacecraft is hard enough, I can hardly believe the uncontrolled explosions did not produce forces that will cause the spacecraft to tumble. Just a little nudge in +z or -z would have rendered the docking impossible. Also, CASE lied about the rate of revolution. It was spinning way slower than what he claimed. Maybe he was trying to dissuade Cooper from docking It's nothing huge and it doesn't really detract from the movie, but they caught a huge break there
A SciFi thread ? As a kid I was an huge SciFi reader and still got a bookshelf full of SciFi novels. One of my first novels was Orwell's 1984, we had to read in school (the first book I'd enjoyed to read in contrast to novels like Andorra, The Wave or The Cloud ), getting over Dune and Hitchhiker's guid to the galaxy to not so sophisticated novels of the StarWars or Warhammer40k universe But nowadays I prefer more tangible stories, caused by some real life events, I guess Not to say I completely dislike SciFi, still enjoy novels or movies but I don't follow it with the same passion like I once did
The best sci-fi movie i've watched these past few years is The Man from Earth (tho i'm not sure if this is counted as sci-fi) while the kid inside me like Pacific Rim the most. Interstellar somehow disappoint me, not that it's bad in fact it's super good but i don't know, i just expect something more since it's Nolan. The worst that i've watched these past few years obviously Edge of Tomorrow, such blasphemy to the original work (All You Need Is Kill).
I don't see a mention of Blade Runner in this thread yet. It's pretty much a must see movie for cyberpunk lovers.
Spoiler True enough -- however the shape of Endurance would tend to self-right about the center of mass if given a sudden rotational force, like a top. (remember that Lander 1 & Ranger 2 are still docked to the center spindle)... As a top will self-stabilize with rotation, it's not out of line to expect something shaped like Endurance to do the same... though not as quickly as in the film... However, to be fair -- they did English one aspect of this whole dance into fantasy -- the spin itself. With two pods gone and the remains of a third barely there... the rotation about center mass would barely, if at all, contain the diameter of the spindle -- rather like Pluto and Charon's orbits -- the center doesn't intersect with Pluto at all. Therefore, TARS' docking maneuvering through the RCS joystick would require spinning AND moving the spin through a hypotrochoid path... which they only barely acknowledge through the slight rocking of the two IDAs (Int'l Docking Adapters) when the dramatic dock occurs. Sure maybe only a robot had the control necessary to intuit the needed inputs required to not die a Mach 25 reentry death... but that was kind of disappointing right away. Could be explained by the offset mass of the remaining two away craft... but that's just conjecture. That is what you are here for! My focus early on was books and esp manga/anime... but it's difficult to name anything in cyberpunk without mentioning either that movie, or Bill Gibson's work. The early '80s was cyberpunk's nodal point...
I wonder if you have seen Lexx? If not, here is the first part. It is a bit messy and hard to understand in the beginning but just wait until part 4/7 when Eva Habermann appears. if the video does not show watch the video here
@gotbild I have heard of Lexx and its ridiculous premise, but I haven't had the chance to see it I have started watching this weird as hell series... here we go LOL I love Blade Runner. It's exactly how I imagined the Sprawl to be. I would imagine a futuristic sprawling city would like look something like this or the city in the latest Dredd movie instead of completely clean and sleek like other sci-fi works sometimes portray.
Yeah I remember this series and loved it ...weird, ridiculous and fully worthy to be watched Have anybody seen the movie Soylent green ? Not so much SciFi (unfortunately...) but still a bit and as I saw it for the first time it impressed and scared me at the same time. But I never had a chance to read New York 1999, the novel the movie is based on
I'm a HUGE fan of Asimov, I read almost every scifi story & novel he wrote. End of Eternity is among my favorites, but I love the fact that he tied his novels into one universe from the Robot series to the Foundation series. It's amazing to think about the history of humans and the universe across millennia. I think I screamed a little when I first realized the connections between the two storylines. I also really like Joe Haldeman's The Forever War and Larry Niven's Ringworld series (writing this made me discover that he has more novels set in the same universe, I know what I'm reading next...). Dune series started off great but I think I gave up after God Emperor of Dune... half the book was just Leto's monologues EDIT O GOD HOW DID I FORGET URSULA LEGUIN'S HAINISH SERIES Sorry, don't know much about cyberpunk. I like the space exploration stuff!
William Gibson was actually considering not publishing Neuromancer, due to the similarities between the Sprawl and Ridley Scott's masterpiece. Thank goodness he reconsidered... since the worlds and stories are only similar superficially. A very weird example of convergent evolution... in this case, emerging at the same time as well. Believe it or not, doing some reading on Gibson's works... he's had this happen twice -- first in the '80s as mentioned with Blade Runner... and the second time was 9/11, as he was about to finish the first book in what was to become his 3rd trilogy -- Pattern Recognition. He'd realized that the story he was halfway done with in Sep 2001, lacked the context of one of the most influential moments in world history... so actually began to rewrite the story to include it, based on the actual, real-time consequences day-to-day (opposite of his reaction to Blade Runner). This began a theme in his 'Blue Ant' trilogy that centered on nodal points -- moments that change history and context for society. Fascinating stuff... Oh, no need to apologize -- I need to get a bucket list of books in classic- and other sci-fi to read that I should've years ago. Your contribution is welcome, no matter the source, as long as it's science fiction-related. Space exploration stories are among my favorites in sci-fi (Planetes' manga being a major one for me.) Thanks for your comment!
Spoiler When you're trying to break humankind's complacency to make sure we survive, while oppressing billions of people in the process, I'm sure he has a lot to ponder about
I'm getting the hint from fellow SF fans here... that I really, really need to read Asimov -- everyone else seems to have! Read part of 2061 by Clarke... but realized pretty early on that Clarke's works require you to start from 2001... so 221 + 291 pgs to even get the context of what's said in 2061 (and 256 more for 3001). Think for what I'm interested in, the Foundation series will be better use of time.
Wait. You have NOT read Asimov? How the heck does that even happen..... Also Sir Arthur C. Clarke is not a waste of time. Read all the things by Clarke. ALL THE THINGS!
His prose might not be the best, but his ideas and the topics he explored are very interesting and worth thinking about. It's crazy to think that he wrote all this stuff more than 50 years ago. I like this short story by him: http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
